Menial describes work that requires little skill and often involves repetitive tasks. Washing dishes, sweeping floors, and sorting mail might be described as menial tasks.

While the word is usually used as a way of looking down on a kind of work, many jobs described as menial are extremely important. Imagine a world where nobody washed dishes or swept floors. It would be disgusting, unhygienic, and eventually unhealthy. Tasks described as menial can be some of the most important in the world.